1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of synthesizing a single nanometer size metal composite oxide and a metal composite oxide obtained according to that synthesis method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Growing expectations are being placed on nanotechnology in recent years, and development of materials is being actively pursued using nanocomposite materials as one of the research fields thereof. The size of the dispersed phase in composite materials according to the related art has been at most on the micron order, and performance able to be predicted there from has only been on the level that is able to be predicted with compounding rules. However, in the case of nanocomposite materials, quantum size effects appear that differ from those of bulk materials, and since interatomic or intermolecular interactions have a considerable effect on material properties and the interface with the matrix increases dramatically, functions are expected to be demonstrated that far surpass those of composite materials according to the related art.
Here, nanometer size typically refers to a size of 1 nm to several tens of nm. In contrast, single nanometer size, which has recently attracted attention, refers to a size of 1 nm to 10 nm, and microparticles having such a size have a larger quantum size effect than microparticles having a size of several tens of nm and are expected to have the effect of demonstrating functions as a novel material.
Several technologies for producing metal composite oxide microparticles, including their applications, are available. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-090235 (JP-A-2009-090235) discloses a catalyst material for purifying exhaust gas components having mutually mixing primary particles of active alumina and primary particles of a composite oxide containing Ce, Zr and a rare earth metal R other than Ce, and aggregating the primary particles so as to form secondary particles, wherein CeO2 is contained in the primary particles of the composite oxide at a ratio of 20 to 60 mol %.
This catalyst material for purifying exhaust gas components is composed of secondary particles obtained by aggregating primary particles. The size of microparticles formed by such secondary aggregation far exceeds several tens of nm, and such microparticles are therefore not microparticles having a single nanometer size.